The good ,
The Blu-ray really brings out great sound. Even at 5.1, there's so much more going on. Plus, a ton of visual detail is a feast. Shame they didn't do TNG-R as 4K as 4K was hitting the market around that time. Troi's hair braid is distinctly gold and silver, which couldn't be seen in the SD original. Clothing and fine details, sans moiré, are already a joy to behold, then comes the ship f/x, the saucer detaching and the transporter grids (yellow rectangles) might show detail at 1080P, but wouldn't be as jaggy in 4k. Whine whine whine whine whine!
Speaking of whining, the courtroom scene, predating the worst of 90s shows like The Jerry Springer Show (as had "Sarek"), was more interesting on this latest rewatch, with the peanut gallery going through the array of emotions, from whine whine whine to woop woop woop (another 90s gem, introducing a new way to applaud a guest coming into the show and I rather miss that as well...)
The direction and camerawork for this story is pretty solid... including a good jump scare and some great close-ups of characters in front of the main viewer. Wonderful stuff...
The new ship design... it grew on me over time as its shape didn't look great from all angles and the registry isn't lit up in the way that movie-Enterprise was. But that's the thing with outer space, it's big it's in 3D, so designing something that looks perfect from every angle is either going to be very complex or a Borg cube, or we stick to vantage points where the ship looks the best. The latter they chosen, which helped long-term. It's also fun to see the new technologies on display, as movie-Enterprise only had blue-glowing nacelles when warp drive was active - they were otherwise shut down. The "D" has them glowing 24/7, so it's obviously more efficient or more systems are powered through the main drive. Given the ship's incredibly size, it's not entirely surprising... Gotta say though, that the windows-everywhere approach was pretty slick, and saucer separation was a nifty idea that added some zest to action scenes. Something season 1 would return to later, and kept sparingly since poppin' the top can only be done so many times before either running out of ideas to do it, or audiences no longer being wowed by the whiz-bang separation sequence.
The casting is 100% awesome. Roddenberry had to be convinced for Patrick Stewart, but it was worth it. If tapes of auditions, especially of Stephen Macht, exist, those would be a joy to see. But Stewart clearly nailed it and then some, and is one of the few actors that could elevate even the worst dialogue in the worst possible scripts.
I liked Yar's scenery chewing in this one. Her heiney-kicking also works to the story's betterment. Wish season 1 kept up and improved on this.
Picard gets his crew to think, notice his reaction to Yar during the Q encounter on the battle bridge. It's for the audience's benefit more than charcter building, but in the list of "Good Yar moments" vs "Bad Yar moments", this one goes into the good pile...
...Especially as Picard isn't Kirk by the fact that, in this new ship, with new captain, on day one, immediately opts to surrender, and rest assured that Q is nothing like Balok.
Q may be based loosely on Trelane, but there's a gravitas to Q that Trelane didn't have, feeling authentic as a result. DeLancie steals the show as well.
Troi and Q start out really great for the show. Q is the Loki trickster teaching Picard to be a good boy* and Troi's ability to sense emotions from any alien is what saves the day. Plus, Troi channeling the jellyfish's emotions alone is worth a watch as Marina hits it out of the ballpark. Wish Troi was used consistently better, but later seasons would improve upon her character in better ways (e.g. "The Ensigns of Command" while discussing the monumental nature of communication with aliens in the first place.)
We also see high-level character outlines of the new crew, even some backstory, and there's MUCH potential here that even TOS did not have.
Geordi's introduction scene is a refreshing moment, with the chain of command and all.
Worf's introduction needn't be deep and later is the history retroactively filled in: Federation and Klingon Empire made up and later episodes will dive into this.
"Let's be damned for what we really are" (Picard) speaks volumes.
The Ferengi are spoken of. I wonder what they will be like when we actually get to see them in action, inaction?
Lastly, the new ship's interiors borrowed from the movie sets while creating a few new ones and, given that Trek was about to explore new ground, didn't want to spend too much per episode ($1mil/ep), so the movie set interiors were redressed or using the same floorplans to make changing them back and forth easier. With season 2 onward, the existing sets paid for themselves, so enhancements could be made (e.g. Geordi's Engineering station by the warp core now has control panels and isn't glowing white CCFL bulbs.)
The bad,
Proof that season 1 had great ideas but inconsistent execution, Admiral McCoy reacts to Data's age of "137 years" as "how do you remember so exactly". Well, anyone could remember the age. But why not go the extra millimeter and have Data reciting months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, nanoseconds, attoseconds, etc, to give McCoy's line the needed depth and gravitas to make it work to its potential?
Data flinches in response to the space squid pew-pewing on the Bandi city, whereas Riker did not. They mix up their scripts?
Why is the fabric peddler so interested in the Enterprise crew? We never see more of him and he's not Q...
"My father was a starfleet officer." The delivery of the line is perfect. But the line itself makes no sense, as the Federation is loaded with numerous species. Thankfully, later episodes clarify that daddy was a big bouncing human. Indeed, if Marina Sirtis was a contender for the role of Dayne in Blake's 7, this isn't one of the times that made me wonder how Marina would have played that role. That's a great show to check out BTW... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/Blakeseven There you go. Within 5 minutes, you'll have a few dozen browser windows open to read up on every stinking reference they mention, plus another dozen or so based on each additional link you look up. Happy reading!
Picard has a ready room, but poor Riker who was chosen for this assignment has to gawk at a replay of Q's visit on the battle bridge while everyone gawks at him? Awk-ward! Plus, who brought in the betamax video camera onto the bridge?
Troi needs Riker to tell her to close her mind to the space jelly's anger?!
When Worf is hot to trot to phaser the dickens out of the viewer, why didn't Q pop up and say, "You humans are exonerated, here's who I really want to pester!"? Then there'd be no show...
Remove Q's subplot and character introductions, and what's left is otherwise a filler leftover TOS story involving some space jellyfish that can telekinetically create anything on a whim -- would that have begun to work as a premiere story, 45 minutes long or double? Whomever decided to make this from a 45-mnute one-off to a feature-length epic premiere in the way that something as big as Trek deserved, followed by adding Q (Roddenberry put in Q as a result of the running time change, not sure of the former and big kudos to them as well), and that helped TNG get off the ground a lot easier.
The lack of exploring Farpoint and more details on Zorn do leave a bit lacking. Would have been fun to have seen something of how Zorn rose through the ranks to become Groppler. There seemed to be no underlings for him, so what happened to the Popplers? In short, we don't get enough backstory of the space station to empathize for when Jimmy the Jellyfish fires on it with his jellywhiz.
The skant was to show equality between the sexes, as well as making cool cool breezes easier for all involved in hot studios, but that was sadly dropped. Looking up (the history of) kilts, it's been done successfully before, and before then as well... also, people were checking Riker out in a couple scenes, one prominently so. It's another kneejerk reaction to what the 60s did. In a future where humans were no longer such'n'such and yet humans are still all getting goo-goo eyes. But for season 001, episode 001, they're still finding their way.
Data states he's of the class of 78. I'm not even going to think into this one as that doesn't fit into any continuity since EaF.
That, and we never ever got to see the low-gravity gymnasium.
The maybe,
Hmm, Picard ends the tale by telling Riker "Oh no, Number One. I'm sure most will be much more interesting." This line might have worked better if the whole story felt stronger.
Zorn has a stain glass window with his name written on it. Nice graphic design, but the dude's got an ego. Seems fitting for the story...
Riker was assigned the Enterprise, Beverly requested it. Picard accepting both, despite saying "I was informed that one Wiliam Riker", is a bit vague - later episodes set the record straight.
When everyone is wandering inside the spacestation jellyfish's intestinal tract or whatever, complete with oxygen atmosphere, the designers could have had a little more fun with the set design.
Data is written either as a Pinocchio archetype or outright android. There's enough of a mix that works. But by season 3, he's 100% android...
Jellyfish in space is a bit TOS, but is a Trek trope. What's more interesting is another interesting metaphor - as a visual cue - in terms of which jellyfish was imprisoned on the planet and which wasn't. If you apply 1987 standards of color theory regarding sex designation, of course.
And Data, never stop commenting on humanity. You make this show.
To summarize,
Any scene with Q, and Picard, Picard and Yar, or Data and Riker, Troi and anyone, is an insta-win.
It's a decent introduction, obligatory cameo that everyone forgets, and great characters with great potential. If I kept rewatching shows based on nostalgia alone, then there'd be too much television to watch. TNG has genuinely withstood the test of time as it's better than a tone of the fare circa 1987, as despite the following example lasting longer than its progenitor series, very few can genuinely say "The Munsters Today" has more consistently quality plotting than the 1964 original.
But then again, in come TNG's next two episodes that risk upending the whole thing. Whoops. Fortunately, TNG would begin to improve, and to even shine after that, starting with: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/whe...watching-where-no-one-has-gone-before.302561/
...One day, I should think into seasons 4-6 stories where saucer separation could have been valuable, since Worf states the ship becomes an exceptional weapon without the saucer. Yet, after TBOBW, it's not shown to separate (much less shown as a formidable weapon, what with energy sources freed up from powering the giant saucer to be applied to weapons and shields...).
But the premiere is a decent 6.5, if not rounding up to 7, when all is said and done... it's more hit than miss, but it's definitely finding its way.
The Blu-ray really brings out great sound. Even at 5.1, there's so much more going on. Plus, a ton of visual detail is a feast. Shame they didn't do TNG-R as 4K as 4K was hitting the market around that time. Troi's hair braid is distinctly gold and silver, which couldn't be seen in the SD original. Clothing and fine details, sans moiré, are already a joy to behold, then comes the ship f/x, the saucer detaching and the transporter grids (yellow rectangles) might show detail at 1080P, but wouldn't be as jaggy in 4k. Whine whine whine whine whine!
Speaking of whining, the courtroom scene, predating the worst of 90s shows like The Jerry Springer Show (as had "Sarek"), was more interesting on this latest rewatch, with the peanut gallery going through the array of emotions, from whine whine whine to woop woop woop (another 90s gem, introducing a new way to applaud a guest coming into the show and I rather miss that as well...)
The direction and camerawork for this story is pretty solid... including a good jump scare and some great close-ups of characters in front of the main viewer. Wonderful stuff...
The new ship design... it grew on me over time as its shape didn't look great from all angles and the registry isn't lit up in the way that movie-Enterprise was. But that's the thing with outer space, i
The casting is 100% awesome. Roddenberry had to be convinced for Patrick Stewart, but it was worth it. If tapes of auditions, especially of Stephen Macht, exist, those would be a joy to see. But Stewart clearly nailed it and then some, and is one of the few actors that could elevate even the worst dialogue in the worst possible scripts.
I liked Yar's scenery chewing in this one. Her heiney-kicking also works to the story's betterment. Wish season 1 kept up and improved on this.
Picard gets his crew to think, notice his reaction to Yar during the Q encounter on the battle bridge. It's for the audience's benefit more than charcter building, but in the list of "Good Yar moments" vs "Bad Yar moments", this one goes into the good pile...
...Especially as Picard isn't Kirk by the fact that, in this new ship, with new captain, on day one, immediately opts to surrender, and rest assured that Q is nothing like Balok.
Q may be based loosely on Trelane, but there's a gravitas to Q that Trelane didn't have, feeling authentic as a result. DeLancie steals the show as well.
Troi and Q start out really great for the show. Q is the Loki trickster teaching Picard to be a good boy* and Troi's ability to sense emotions from any alien is what saves the day. Plus, Troi channeling the jellyfish's emotions alone is worth a watch as Marina hits it out of the ballpark. Wish Troi was used consistently better, but later seasons would improve upon her character in better ways (e.g. "The Ensigns of Command" while discussing the monumental nature of communication with aliens in the first place.)
* woof woof
We also see high-level character outlines of the new crew, even some backstory, and there's MUCH potential here that even TOS did not have.
Geordi's introduction scene is a refreshing moment, with the chain of command and all.
Worf's introduction needn't be deep and later is the history retroactively filled in: Federation and Klingon Empire made up and later episodes will dive into this.
"Let's be damned for what we really are" (Picard) speaks volumes.
The Ferengi are spoken of. I wonder what they will be like when we actually get to see them in action, inaction?
Lastly, the new ship's interiors borrowed from the movie sets while creating a few new ones and, given that Trek was about to explore new ground, didn't want to spend too much per episode ($1mil/ep), so the movie set interiors were redressed or using the same floorplans to make changing them back and forth easier. With season 2 onward, the existing sets paid for themselves, so enhancements could be made (e.g. Geordi's Engineering station by the warp core now has control panels and isn't glowing white CCFL bulbs.)
The bad,
Proof that season 1 had great ideas but inconsistent execution, Admiral McCoy reacts to Data's age of "137 years" as "how do you remember so exactly". Well, anyone could remember the age. But why not go the extra millimeter and have Data reciting months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, nanoseconds, attoseconds, etc, to give McCoy's line the needed depth and gravitas to make it work to its potential?
Data flinches in response to the space squid pew-pewing on the Bandi city, whereas Riker did not. They mix up their scripts?
Why is the fabric peddler so interested in the Enterprise crew? We never see more of him and he's not Q...
"My father was a starfleet officer." The delivery of the line is perfect. But the line itself makes no sense, as the Federation is loaded with numerous species. Thankfully, later episodes clarify that daddy was a big bouncing human. Indeed, if Marina Sirtis was a contender for the role of Dayne in Blake's 7, this isn't one of the times that made me wonder how Marina would have played that role. That's a great show to check out BTW... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/Blakeseven There you go. Within 5 minutes, you'll have a few dozen browser windows open to read up on every stinking reference they mention, plus another dozen or so based on each additional link you look up. Happy reading!
Picard has a ready room, but poor Riker who was chosen for this assignment has to gawk at a replay of Q's visit on the battle bridge while everyone gawks at him? Awk-ward! Plus, who brought in the betamax video camera onto the bridge?
Troi needs Riker to tell her to close her mind to the space jelly's anger?!
When Worf is hot to trot to phaser the dickens out of the viewer, why didn't Q pop up and say, "You humans are exonerated, here's who I really want to pester!"? Then there'd be no show...
Remove Q's subplot and character introductions, and what's left is otherwise a filler leftover TOS story involving some space jellyfish that can telekinetically create anything on a whim -- would that have begun to work as a premiere story, 45 minutes long or double? Whomever decided to make this from a 45-mnute one-off to a feature-length epic premiere in the way that something as big as Trek deserved, followed by adding Q (Roddenberry put in Q as a result of the running time change, not sure of the former and big kudos to them as well), and that helped TNG get off the ground a lot easier.
The lack of exploring Farpoint and more details on Zorn do leave a bit lacking. Would have been fun to have seen something of how Zorn rose through the ranks to become Groppler. There seemed to be no underlings for him, so what happened to the Popplers? In short, we don't get enough backstory of the space station to empathize for when Jimmy the Jellyfish fires on it with his jellywhiz.
The skant was to show equality between the sexes, as well as making cool cool breezes easier for all involved in hot studios, but that was sadly dropped. Looking up (the history of) kilts, it's been done successfully before, and before then as well... also, people were checking Riker out in a couple scenes, one prominently so. It's another kneejerk reaction to what the 60s did. In a future where humans were no longer such'n'such and yet humans are still all getting goo-goo eyes. But for season 001, episode 001, they're still finding their way.
Data states he's of the class of 78. I'm not even going to think into this one as that doesn't fit into any continuity since EaF.
That, and we never ever got to see the low-gravity gymnasium.
The maybe,
Hmm, Picard ends the tale by telling Riker "Oh no, Number One. I'm sure most will be much more interesting." This line might have worked better if the whole story felt stronger.
Zorn has a stain glass window with his name written on it. Nice graphic design, but the dude's got an ego. Seems fitting for the story...
Riker was assigned the Enterprise, Beverly requested it. Picard accepting both, despite saying "I was informed that one Wiliam Riker", is a bit vague - later episodes set the record straight.
When everyone is wandering inside the space
Data is written either as a Pinocchio archetype or outright android. There's enough of a mix that works. But by season 3, he's 100% android...
Jellyfish in space is a bit TOS, but is a Trek trope. What's more interesting is another interesting metaphor - as a visual cue - in terms of which jellyfish was imprisoned on the planet and which wasn't. If you apply 1987 standards of color theory regarding sex designation, of course.
And Data, never stop commenting on humanity. You make this show.
To summarize,
Any scene with Q, and Picard, Picard and Yar, or Data and Riker, Troi and anyone, is an insta-win.
It's a decent introduction, obligatory cameo that everyone forgets, and great characters with great potential. If I kept rewatching shows based on nostalgia alone, then there'd be too much television to watch. TNG has genuinely withstood the test of time as it's better than a tone of the fare circa 1987, as despite the following example lasting longer than its progenitor series, very few can genuinely say "The Munsters Today" has more consistently quality plotting than the 1964 original.
But then again, in come TNG's next two episodes that risk upending the whole thing. Whoops. Fortunately, TNG would begin to improve, and to even shine after that, starting with: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/whe...watching-where-no-one-has-gone-before.302561/
...One day, I should think into seasons 4-6 stories where saucer separation could have been valuable, since Worf states the ship becomes an exceptional weapon without the saucer. Yet, after TBOBW, it's not shown to separate (much less shown as a formidable weapon, what with energy sources freed up from powering the giant saucer to be applied to weapons and shields...).
But the premiere is a decent 6.5, if not rounding up to 7, when all is said and done... it's more hit than miss, but it's definitely finding its way.
